The present invention relates generally to a vehicle door apparatus and more particularly to a vehicle door apparatus having a movable window portion which automatically adjusts to a vehicle body structure.
1. Background Art
Manufacturers of motor vehicles have long been faced with the difficult task of constructing a door assembly which not only generates a high quality seal against the vehicle body but also is easy to install and operate. Conventionally, the process of installing a door assembly includes the hanging of the door assembly onto a vehicle body and adjusting of the door assembly to contact a weatherstrip seal between the vehicle body and the door assembly.
The process of adjusting the vehicle doors is typically labor intensive and tedious, especially where a high quality seal is desired due to the relatively small tolerances on the fit of the vehicle door to the vehicle body that a technician will typically have to work with. Furthermore, a substantial amount of experience is usually necessary before a technician is able to reliably adjust vehicle doors with a minimum of adjusting iterations. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a vehicle door assembly which generates a high quality seal but which is relatively easier to install.
Another drawback associated with the modern vehicle doors that provide high quality seals is the amount of effort that is required to close the door assembly. The high quality seal is typically generated via a body weatherstrip around a substantial portion of the door assembly to block the infiltration of wind, debris and noise into the vehicle passenger compartment and as such, a relatively large force is required to compress the body weatherstrip when generating the high quality seal. Trade-offs in the design of the seal, such as the use of a more resilient but less effective sealing material, are frequently made to ensure that the effort to close the door assembly will not be too high. These trade-offs reduce the overall quality of the seal and still require substantial effort to close the door assembly. Accordingly, there also remains a need in the art for a door assembly which provides a high quality seal but which is also relatively easy to close.
In one preferred form, the present invention provides a closure member assembly for a vehicle having a vehicle body that defines an aperture. The closure member assembly is positionable between a first position wherein the closure member assembly substantially closes the aperture and a second position wherein the closure member assembly substantially clears the aperture. The closure member assembly includes a first structure, a second structure and a drive mechanism. The first structure is movably coupled to the vehicle body. The second structure is pivotably coupled to the first structure about a generally horizontal pivot axis. The drive mechanism is coupled to one of the first and second structures and operable in an actuated condition for pivoting the second structure about the generally horizontal pivot axis.